FT03

Q & A

I have limited space, can I safely place the FT03 in a corner during operation?

Yes you can, FT03’s rear and right panel have no ventilation holes or other uses so we actually recommend users to place their FT03 into a corner to further take advantage of its incredibly short footprint.

Since FT03 intake most of the air from the bottom, should I prop it up higher off the ground? And would I need to worry aboutexcessive dust intake?

Extensive testing was conducted during FT03’s development to determine the optimal height of the case stand for air intake so there is no benefit to increase the height any further. The bottom of FT03 has an integrated fan filter that can effectively cut down dust intake into the case so as long as the filter is cleaned on a regular basis, there is no need to worry about dust or cooling performance.

If I want to use a simple, closed loop water cooler, where should I install the radiator?

Most users can install it in the 120mm fan slot above the CPU area.

Why is the power cord connector located on the bottom of the case?

One of FT03’s design parameters was to eliminate all cable connections on all four sides of the case. As most power cords are connected closer to the floor and usually below case height, we moved the power cord connector to the bottom of the case for more elegant integration.

Does the power supply exhaust affect the case’s cooling performance?

Yes, the exhaust from the power supply will have a small effect on overall case temperature. This is unavoidable due to FT03’s small footprint design. However, our internal testing has shown that if a high efficiency power supply is used (such as SilverStone’s 80 PLUS Silver certified Strider Plus series), the exhaust temperature will likely stay below 35 degrees Celsius and have minimum effect on overall case cooling performance.

Why is the case designed to only support slim optical drive?

The FT03 was designed to have the smallest footprint possible and to be aesthetically pleasing so a slim optical drive with slot loading is the best choice to achieve this objective.

How do the hard drives get cooled behind the motherboard tray?

When the hard drives are installed, they are so close to the aluminum side panel that passive heat conduction does occur to help reduce drive temperature. For the hard drive installed in the hot-swappable bay, an aluminum block pre-attached to the side panel will also help to provide heat conduction for cooling duty.

Can I use a tower-style heatsink without a fan?

According to tests we’ve done internally, a CPU with TDP rating of 130W (such as Intel Core i7), can run with a fanless tower-style heatsink inside the FT03. However, this does not account for overclocking and performance will vary depending on the efficiency of the heatsink used. We suggest that you try at your own risk.

I have a custom cooler, how do I know which way the heat pipes should be situated to obtain the best performance in the ##?

There are two main types of heat pipes used in popular aftermarket coolers, they are groove and powder. Groove heat pipes are very susceptible to gravity while powder heat pipes are less so. To achieve best performance in either heat pipe technology, they need to be placed horizontally or have the heat source side located below the other end of the heat pipe. We recommend choosing and installing components with heat pipes carefully by taking into consideration of the following examples:

Motherboard:

The orientation of an enthusiast motherboard in a normal ATX case

The orientation of an enthusiast motherboard in the ##

As the illustrations above show, most enthusiast motherboards with heat pipes will work fine in the ##, the heat source is located below other parts of the heat pipe.
CPU cooler:
Horizontal style cooler

Good orientation Good orientation Bad orientation

Many CPU coolers can be rotated when installing on motherboards, the illustration here shows a SilverStone NT06-E

VGA cooler

The illustration here shows a VGA cooler that will not work well in the ## because the heat source side (touching the GPU) ends up being located higher than the other end.